Tauranga speeds ahead on UFB

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Tauranga has the highest uptake of Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) in the country, according to new data.

The city's uptake rate is just under 11 per cent, with the UFB network almost 60 per cent complete, ahead of the uptake in Palmerston North, Whangarei (where the network is complete), Auckland and Wellington.

The figures are part of the latest data as of June 2014, which will be published shortly by Crown Fibre Holdings, the government entity running the project.

"The big learning is that in Tauranga you've had strong retailers supporting UFB and there's a lot of laid network available," said Brett Morris, marketing manager for Ultra Fast Fibre, which is responsible for laying fibre in Tauranga and a number of other provincial cities including Hamilton, New Plymouth and Whanganui.

"Some of the other regions are still less networked," he said.

"The Tauranga community is really progressive. I think we're now going to see a snowball effect with more and more people getting on quicker."

Chorus is responsible for the biggest part of the UFB build-out, which aims to connect fibre to all schools and public hospitals, most private health facilities and most businesses by 2015. The Government plans to connect 75 per cent of the population by 2019.

The key early player in the market was Trustpower, which has been aggressive in pushing UFB as part of its bundling strategy, which has leveraged off its strong position in the local power sector where it has about 75 per cent of the market.

Trustpower general manager commercial operations Chris O'Hara said that in the early days the Tauranga company had about 80 per cent of the market, but with increased competition that had dropped back to around 50 per cent.